On Wednesday Night, August 8^th, we will be discussing North Georgia Mountain Folk Medicine. I was recently asked about the “healing arts” that used to be practiced in the North Georgia Mountains. There were people who supposedly had secret powers to “talk the fire out” of burn victims, conjure warts, stop bleeding, heal thrush, cure poison oak, etc.

Since these healing arts are secret, it is rare if you can find someone who will tell you how their healing rituals work. For those who will share their secrets, it seems like there may be some combination of magic and faith healing. Some of the secret words used in these rituals are from the Bible and some are not.

As modern medical facilities moved into the mountains, fewer and fewer of these mountain medicine men (and women) can be found. Modern medicine and science tend to refer to “mountain medicine” as superstition. Still, people who have known some of these “healers” or who have been “cured” by these practices, claim that “it really works!”

Many of the people who practiced these secret cures were “church going” people who claimed that it was “Faith-Healing.”  But, the “secret” side of this makes one wonder if there is not some magic or witchcraft involved.

What do you think?

 Loading ...